In the medical industry, there is often a need to safely and efficiently lift and transfer a patient between surfaces that may be co-planar, higher or lower with respect to one another. In the past, such transfer operations have involved the use of either complicated and expensive mechanical lift systems, or other devices that instead require physical exertion on the part of the medical personnel who must bend and lift to effect the transfer. However, injuries to both the patient and the medical personnel can be associated with moving substantially immobilized patients for treatment. Typically, the injurious nature of such transfer operations is inflicted upon the medical personnel due to the repetitive bending and lifting strains performed on a daily basis. This can lead not only to pain and discomfort for the afflicted medial personnel, but can also lead to lost time and disability, which is costly to both the employer and the employee.
Similarly, in the hospitality industry, housekeeping staff perform tasks daily that involve the physical exertion of bending and lifting, such as changing bed linens, wherein the housekeeping staff must bend their backs and lift heavy mattress repeatedly in order to change the linens and tuck them neatly into place. Reports of related injuries, lost time and disability associated with performing the above tasks are widely known.
There is a clear need for a simple, inexpensive and highly effective device to assist medical personnel and housekeeping staff in the performance of their duties while minimizing the risk of injury associated with the required tasks. This need is also clearly extended to numerous other industries that involve lifting and moving heavy and/or bulky objects, which impose similar strains on the performance personnel.
The use of pressurized fluid-filled vertical lifting or horizontal transfer devices has been known. Such devices are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,028,350 to Davis, U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,827 to Rimington et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,417,639 to Wegener and U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,276 to Hunt et al. Another device is U.S. Pat. No. 7,725,963 to Johnson, which provides horizontal movement of a patient or object using a pressurized fluid-filled transfer pad that generates a controlled fluid film that lifts and enables horizontal movement of the pad.
However, the specific features of the transfer devices according to the present invention, and the unique combinations thereof described in more detail below, are not provided in conjunction with any single prior art lifting and transfer device. The present invention thus represents a significant improvement over the heretofore known lifting and transfer devices by providing low pressure fluidized devices that perform horizontal and/or vertical transfer operations, improve effective lifetime and overall operational efficiency of the device, reduce costs and reduce the potential for injuries and damage.